Currently I'm trying to use the xscreensaver 'barcode' (/usr/lib/xscreensaver/barcode) as my background. I'm running WindowMaker on a small-cd install of Debian as a speedy minimal system.

The computer is an old Compaq Evo with a pentium 3 installed and it takes 50 seconds from pressing the power button to the login-screen POST. Apart from a nice platform to do school-work on it is also a great way to show-up my friends running uber-hardware Vista laptops that lurch along.

My .xinitrc file:Note that exec preceding wmaker isn't necessary unless I have code after 'wmaker' that I don't want to execute.

When I start X, everything is hunky dory. Because the screensaver only draws where it changes I had to set my root window as black in the WindowMaker preferences but that isn't a biggie.

However the second I press any key on my keyboard (probably not inlcuding Fn) barcode self-terminates. I tried some other screensavers in its place with the same result.

Executing barcode in a terminal once X and my window-manager has loaded the problem does not occur.

Seemingly by starting it before my window manager it somehow gets a hook on my keyboard input and does what it's designed to do: stop when the user does something. How can I either execute it after the WM starts (automatically) or stop it from getting any input from my keyboard?

As a final note, I chose barcode as it sucked up little system resources. I originally planned to use lockward to show up my Window-user friends but that basically ate my CPU and spat out the bones.

-whales

Found the answer